Jay Weinberg Says He Was Legally Barred From Collaborating After Slipknot Exit

Jay Weinberg has revealed that after leaving Slipknot in 2023, he lacked the "legal ability" to play music with other people for a period of time.

The drummer told the podcast Loyal to the Craft that contractual restrictions prevented him from releasing collaborative music, even though he continued to create in private. Weinberg said he knew the material could not be put out due to his legal obligations at that time. Rolling Stone reported his comments on 16 August 2026.

Weinberg's departure from Slipknot was announced in the fall of 2023. The band described it at the time as a "creative decision," according to Rolling Stone. In an April 2026 interview with the same outlet, Weinberg said his exit came after the band's manager informed him that his contract would not be renewed, and that the decision arrived without explanation. He had joined Slipknot in late 2013, stepping into the role previously held by founding drummer Joey Jordison, and spent a decade with the Iowa metal band.

The legal constraint has since lifted. Since parting ways with Slipknot, Weinberg has toured with Suicidal Tendencies, recorded with the band Fuming Mouth, and launched a new project called Portraits of an Apparition. He has also released his first solo music and collaborated with Canadian duo Softcult on the song "Drown Fountain," a track he told Loyal to the Craft had been in his mind since 2013 — the same year he joined Slipknot.

Weinberg's career before Slipknot gave him one of the more unusual résumés in heavy music. In his April Rolling Stone interview, he reflected on his years playing with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band — where he sometimes sat in for his father, Max Weinberg — as well as stints with the punk band Against Me! and Slipknot. Moving between Springsteen's stadium rock and Slipknot's masked extreme metal was unusual enough; doing so under the weight of contractual limits on his next moves adds another layer to that story.

For now, those limits appear to be behind him. Weinberg's post-Slipknot activity has spread across punk, metal and shoegaze-adjacent territory, and the Softcult collaboration suggests the period of enforced silence produced music he was ready to share the moment he was allowed to.